by Calculated Risk on 11/14/2009 10:55:00 PM

In his comments with the Unofficial Problem Bank list, surferdude808 noted that the Federal Reserve issued a Prompt Corrective Action order against Orion Bank on Thursday. Orion was seized the following day by the FDIC.

The PCA order makes for interesting reading (Note: Stephen at FUMU Finance wrote to me about this - here is Stephen's post with some background details: Orion Bank - Management's master plan!). From the PCA:

In order to improve its management, the Bank must dismiss Jerry Williams (“Williams”), its current chief executive officer, president, and chairman of its board of directors, from office and as a member of the board of directors, based on the following:

(a) Prior to June 2009, the Bank reached its legal lending limit under Florida law with respect to the aggregate loans outstanding to a borrower and his related interests. In June 2009, Williams permitted the Bank to make loans of an additional approximately $60 million to straw borrowers who were related interests of the borrower referred to above in continuing violation of the Florida legal lending limit statute (the “June 2009 loans”);

(b) the June 2009 loans referred to above, which were made to enable the borrowers to purchase certain low quality assets from the Bank, were underwritten in an unsafe and unsound manner. The loans were made without adequate analysis of the borrowers’ creditworthiness, capacity for repayment, and valuation of collateral offered in support of the loans. Further, the loans were structured in a manner to make it appear that the Bank was reducing its level of classified assets;

(c) the Bank needed additional capital as of June 30, 2009, to avoid being less than well-capitalized. Williams had knowledge that $15 million of loan proceeds from the June 2009 loans referred to above were to be used to purchase common and preferred stock issued by Orion Bancorp, Inc., Naples, Florida (“Bancorp”), the parent holding company for the Bank, and Williams took steps to ensure that the $15 million was promptly used to purchase the holding company stock;

(d) in early July 2009, in response to inquiries from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta (the “Reserve Bank”), Williams stated orally and in writing that the $15 million in capital referred to above was raised “without any financing” provided by the Bank. This statement was false because Williams had information available to him to demonstrate that the Bank intended that the loan proceeds be used as the source of the stock purchase;

(e) as a result of the actions set forth in (a) through (d), above, the Bank, with Williams’ active participation, filed materially inaccurate regulatory reports, made false statements to the Federal Reserve, has suffered additional loan losses, and has failed to comply with provisions of an outstanding Written Agreement designed to require that the Bank properly address its asset quality problems. These actions show that the management of the Bank would be improved without Williams’ service as a senior executive officer or director of the Bank.
emphasis added

Pretty amazing.